The Chinese Space Bacteria and a Drone Rescue You Won't Hear About Today

TALK TO ME, TEXT IT

Strange stories lurk in the shadows of our news cycles, overshadowed by flashier headlines but no less fascinating. Today's episode dives into two such tales that deserve your attention.

First, we explore the concerning discovery of a mysterious new bacterial strain aboard China's Tiangong space station. This microorganism, related to bacteria found in soil and waste, has developed peculiar "unique abilities" that allow it to thrive in space environments. While scientists frame this as a beneficial discovery for understanding life beyond Earth, questions arise about potential applications by a nation with questionable motives on the world stage.

The narrative then shifts to Pensacola Beach, where modern technology and quick thinking converged in an extraordinary rescue. When a teenage girl found herself caught in a powerful riptide, traditional rescue methods proved too slow. Enter an unlikely hero – a shark hunter who repurposed his drone to deliver a flotation device to the struggling swimmer. This remarkable incident highlights how everyday technology can transform into life-saving tools when conventional approaches fall short.

Beyond these captivating stories, the episode takes a more personal turn as I reflect on my relationship with social media and content creation. Like many of us, I've been questioning the balance between online engagement and real-world connection. The constant pull of digital spaces often disconnects us from what matters most – a struggle many listeners likely share. The episode concludes with a fascinating exploration of dream interpretation through my recent experience of being attacked by a bear yet feeling anger rather than fear. What do your dreams reveal about your subconscious? Listen, reflect, and perhaps share your own dream experiences in the comments. Sometimes the most revealing stories are the ones we tell ourselves while sleeping.

Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!
Start for FREE

Thanks for listening! 

Liberty Line each week on Sunday, look for topics on my X file @americanistblog and submit your 1-3 audio opinions to [e-mail] and you'll be featured on the podcast. 

Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!
Start for FREE

Support the show

Tip Jar for coffee $ - Thanks

Music by Alehandro Vodnik from Pixabay

Blog - AnAmericanist.com
X - @americanistblog

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, hello, good morning, happy Wednesday.
I just have a couple of shortstories for you, unusual stories
that are probably you're notgoing to see in the headlines
today.
You're going to hear a lot ofother things.
Oh, by the way, we had stormslast night, but obviously we're
all safe and good here.
I have not heard of anytornadoes touching down yet this

(00:22):
morning, but I have not beenlistening to the local news yet.
So, as far as I know, aroundhere in Huntsville we're good.
Now the outer, you know, ruralareas, I'm not sure.
Okay, so I have a couple ofstories here from the New York
Post that I've put out here on X, on my X file.
The first one I want to talkabout mysterious bacteria with

(00:45):
unique abilities discovered onchinese space station.
First of all, I did not knowthere was a chinese space
station and they're probablyusing it as a lab up there.
Obviously, um, back to thefuture is how this starts out.
Chinese scientists discovered anovel strain of bacterium with

(01:08):
unique abilities and uniqueabilities is in quotation marks,
so you know that's not a goodthing.
That allowed it to thrive onthe Tiangong space station,
according to a report.
Oh my gosh, these damn pop-ups.
Okay, oh my gosh, enough withthe pop-ups.
Stop it.
Okay, what the hell?

(01:28):
Okay, stop it.
Oh, y'all, I'm sorry.
Okay, we are moving on.
This is really ticking me off.
I'm sorry, Bear with me.
I'm sorry, bear with me, I'mgetting there.
We're gonna do hide reader view.

(01:49):
Maybe there we go, okay.
The novel strain is closelyrelated to terrestrial bacterium
how do they know this, uh,called niallia I I'm sorry, I
cannot do it with these wordsCirculans which is found in soil
, sewage, food and human stool.

(02:09):
Oh, that's lovely Early thismorning, but exhibits several
mutations that could provebeneficial in the study of life
as it moves out into space, thepaper claimed.
Scientists said the novelstrain demonstrates a unique
ability to hydrolyze gelatin.
I don't know what that means,suggesting that it can utilize

(02:30):
gelatin as a substrate innutrient limited environments.
I don't know what all thatmeans.
I'm not a scientist, so butobviously, even if it's, even if
this article reads like it's,it might be a good thing.
You know it's the chinese, andthen you know they're going to
use it for bad.
They are the villain in theworld of these days and they're

(02:51):
just going to use it all for badstuff.
I am sure of it.
Come on.
It's the Chinese.
All right, sorry, no, I'm notsorry.
Okay, moving on, this next storyis kind of extraordinary.
It happened in Pensacola Beachand it's really quite
interesting from the New YorkPost.
The basic story is that youknow you're on the beach, you go

(03:15):
in the water Sometimes youcan't swim well, or whatever
great and you get caught in theriptides, you get pulled out.
Well, this is what washappening to this girl.
She was being pulled out into.
Obviously she could tread water, so she was okay for a little
while, but she was being pulledout into the current riptide,
whatever you call it, and peoplewere scrambling on the beach to

(03:37):
try to, you know, get somethingto go save her.
And I'm like, why is there nolifeguard on?
Had a drone and he flew hisdrone out there to drop her
flotation device.
However, it didn't go well atthe first attempt.

(03:57):
Finally, on the second attempt,it worked anyway.
It's an extraordinary story.
Let's go read it.
Shark hunter deploys a drone ata florida beach to save drowning
girls.
Life.
A guardian angel used a dronehe usually deploys for shark
hunting to save a girl wholifeguards say would have surely

(04:17):
drowned if not for his quickthinking and careful piloting.
Well, where were you lifeguards?
Isn't that not your job?
Maybe, I don't know.
Okay, andrew Smith was ready togo home after work Thursday,
but his friends convinced him tohead to Pensacola Beach for
some night fishing.
Ten minutes after Smith arrivedat the beach, pandemoniums broke

(04:37):
out.
There was a teenage girlstruggling in the water.
According to reports, she wasgetting pulled further away from
the shore by a powerful riptide.
A girl sprinted to Smith askinghim if he knew how to swim.
Okay, a lot of these details donot need to be in the freaking
article.
So he had an idea to use hisdrone to deliver a flotation

(05:00):
device to the girl so she couldhold on until help arrived, and
it took a while.
Apparently, her friend wasgetting sucked more and more out
and I looked at the drone and Iwas like well, the drone can
swim, but I can't.
Said, smith, that does not makeany sense whatsoever.
Um, so he, the first time thefree, said the first try did not

(05:26):
work out.
It was too windy, he dropped ittoo soon.
He uh, it was really windy, itwas like it wasn't close at all.
Smith knew time was running outfor the girl.
She was getting pulled furtheraway and had been battling the
relentless current for fiveminutes.
At this point, that's all.
It seems like it would takelonger than that.
Uh, anyway, he eventually gotthe damn thing out there and got

(05:49):
her, and then all of then.
After that, then the, uh, the,the, the other people arrived,
what do you call them?
The rescue people arrived after.
After all of that, what the hell?
Okay, I don't know, I'm soconfused.
Look, I struggled to findstories this morning, anything,
I don't know.
I, maybe my heart's just not inthis anymore, at least today.

(06:11):
Tomorrow will be different, uh,so I guess I need to come up
with a question of the day.
I don't know why I do thisanymore.
I mean, I guess it's sort ofstill fun.
I think I've just gotten into aroutine now, so I'm just kind
of expected of myself to comeand do this, and I do.
I guess I still like it.
I, I don't know.

(06:32):
I kind of want to do somethingelse, but I don't know what.
I don't know what, maybe.
And then I think maybe I shouldpull back a little bit and just
focus on my blog and whatever.
Um, I don't know what to do.
I know what I really need to do.
I really need to pull away fromall kinds of social media
altogether, or if I, you know, Ineed to be selective on what I

(06:54):
watch and listen to and read.
The last few times I've been onTwitter, I've been thinking I
need to just pull back and notengage so much and not put
things out there so much andjust pull back and just get back
into my real life instead ofliving online.

(07:15):
So that's probably what I'mgoing to start doing.
I don't know.
I don't know what I'm going todo, but we need to go on to the
question of the day.
That's for sure.
That's for one thing I know forsure.
Okay, the question is do youstill dream, and, if so, what
was your last dream that youremember?

(07:35):
I had a dream last night that Iwas being attacked again, this
time by a bear, but it was soweird.
I was sitting on a couch in ahouse somewhere.
I'm sitting on a couch and allof a sudden, this bear comes in
on all fours he wasn't standingup, he was on all fours comes
over to me and just kind of hedoesn't bite me or anything, but
he kind of, with his head, justnudges me real hard and kind of

(07:58):
pins me to the couch and I havemy arms up and I'm trying to,
you know, hold him off.
And I see a cop in the nextroom and he's like flirting with
some girl and I'm calling forhelp and he's just ignoring me.
So that's the second time I'vehad a dream that I was attacked.
The thing is, I wasn't scaredagain, I was just like it's
almost like I was annoyed, likehey, hello, I'm over here with a

(08:20):
bear on me, come get him.
And you're over there flirting.
I was more annoyed than I wasscared and, like the other dream
I had, where a man was actuallyattacking me and I was freaking
, fighting him off, punched himin the throat and all this stuff
, I wasn't mad.
I mean, I wasn't scared either,I was just mad.
What does that mean?
Okay, I need a dreaminterpreter.
Maybe I'll look it up later.

(08:41):
All right, that's the questionof the day.
Do you dream?
And if so, what was your lastdream that you had?
Okay, I gotta go.
Thanks for listening.
Love y'all.
Bye.